Dodgers: After a dreadful Opening Day, Lowe got back on track against the Giants, allowing one run over seven innings. He got 14 groundouts and scattered only four hits. He gets an extra day of rest with the day off Thursday.

Padres: Aside from allowing a two-run single to Jamey Carroll in his last start on Saturday, the 43-year-old left-hander was plenty sharp in his 2007 debut against Colorado. Wells allowed just the two runs on six hits over 6 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one in a game that saw him throw 91 pitches.

COMMENTS

Three series in the books and the Dodgers have won two of them. The offense has been far less than convincing (Wednesday's game against the Rockies saw only one inning of run-scoring goodness), but so long as our pitching can keep the opponents to three runs or less, we should be fine. San Diego is coming off a series win over lowly San Francisco which saw their only loss in an one-run contest. This is our first series against a legitimate NL West rival and it is an important one.

Nine games in, many of the Dodger bats still lie dormant, most notably the 7/8 holes of Andre Ethier (.118 BA) and Wilson Betemit (a woeful .053 BA). If Wilson Valdez precedes Ethier with another 0-for-3 night (as he had Wednesday), and Juan Pierre keeps generating outs from the leadoff spot (.211 BA), it is conceivable that we would only have a reasonable offensive threat in three of our nine innings. Somebody's gotta produce down there, as we can't survive with a five-person black hole part of the lineup. (No pressure, Lowe.)

My last posts didn't go through. This one better!!! In middle of second beer. Ate half a thing of garlic fries. Hat 3 was the winner. I was nicknamed "fight the power" by the drunks in front of me. There's one padre fan who keeps getting booed. Bases loaded one out.

Wow, we are killing in this game. I am glad they are able to rest some of the injury prone old guys, like Gonzo and Kent. This is a perfect spot to rest Nomar, wonder which rookie they should bring in?

In closing - Final tally was two beers and no hot dogs! There was a pretty big melee between what looked like an entire section and some Padres fans. The SD folks were getting pelted with beer and food by dozens of people. Bunch of security got called in. The game itself was almost as fun!